HOLINESS AND COMMUNION
Compiled by Cathy McDonnell
Pro Sanctity Local Board Director, California
The following reflections from the saints are offered to increase our awareness and importance of holiness and communion in every day life. Holiness, or growing in maximum love for our Lord, must necessarily be accompanied with an ever abundance of love for our brothers and sisters in communion with Christ.
From the writings of St. Therese ofLisieux, in the Story of a Soul:
This year God has given me the grace to understand what charity is; I understood it before, it is true, but in an imperfect way. I had never fathomed the meaning of these words of Jesus: "The second commandment is LIKE the first: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. " I applied myself especially to loving God, and it is in loving Him that I understood my love was not to be expressed only in words, for: " It is not those who say: "Lord, Lord! Who will enter the kingdom of Heaven, but those who do the will of my Father in Heaven?” When Jesus gave His Apostles a new commandment, His own commandment...it is no longer a question of loving one's neighbor as oneself but of loving him as He, Jesus, has loved him, and will love him to the consummation of the ages. When I am charitable, it is Jesus alone who is acting in me, and the more united I am
to Him, the more also do I love my Sisters. When I wish to increase this love in me, and when especially the devil tries to place before the eyes of my soul the faults of such and such a Sister who is less attractive to me, I hasten to search out her virtues, her good intentions; I tell myself that even if I did see her fall once, she could have easily have won a great number of victories which she is hiding through humility, and that even what appears to me as a fault can very easily be an act of virtue because other intention. I have no trouble in convincing myself of this truth because of a little experience I had which showed me we must never judge.......
How imperfect was my love for my sisters. I saw that I did not love them as God loves them. Oh! I understood now that charity consists in bearing with the faults of others, in not being surprised at their weakness.
From the writings of St. Jane de Chantal's testimony in the canonization process of St. Francis de Sales:
In all the years I had the happiness of knowing him well, both before and after I became a nun, I never knew him to fail to do for his neighbor all the good that lay within his power. He never spared himself in this service; I am quite sure of this, and have seen and experienced more of it than I can ever tell you..... He once wrote to me: "When shall we be really steeped in a sweet and tender love for our neighbor? When shall,we really see his soul in our Savior? Alas, if we look at him in any other way, we run the risk of not loving him purely, faithfully, and each one alike. But who could help loving him in Our Lord, putting up with Him and bearing his faults? Who could then find him unattractive or tiresome? For that is where our neighbor really is, right in our Divine Savior's heart, so beloved and so lovable that the Lover dies for love of him"....
from Her Exhortations, Conferences and Instructions
Our Lord told us that we should love as he loved us. He said to His disciples, " By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another"... .Certainly, we can never reach the perfection of this holy love and union with God unless we have this love of neighbor. Yesterday, I was reading what St. John wrote: "If anyone says, 'I love God,' yet hates his brother, he is a liar, for he who does not love his brother, whom he sees, cannot love God whom he does not see". If we don't have heartfelt love and holy affection towards our sisters, who represent God's image to us, we must conclude that we don't have true love of God....
Real charity and true virtue require that we speak to all our sisters in the same way, gently, cordially, with humble frankness, sweet confidence, holy joy, and gladness, and with a good word about all...it is in this that virtue lies, not in our own preferences. And if we happen to find some.. . disagreeable or hostile toward us, we must remember this:
"Do good to those who hate you. Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them."
Let's all examine our hearts.....and if we find in ourselves any resentment, aversion, or remembrance of past wrongs, let's immediately pick up the pruning hook of God's holy fear and cut off this evil shoot... .In it's place, let's build up love for this great commandment towards our neighbor and for following this holy precept to "love one another as I have loved you" (John 13:34).
From the writing of St. Francis de Sales-Introduction to the Devout Life.
"Live Jesus!" After that I am sure that your life which comes from your heart, like the almond tree from its kernel, will produce all its actions which are its fruits inscribed and engraved with the same word of salvation. Just as this gentle Jesus will love in your heart, he will live also in your conduct and appear in your eyes, in your mouth, in your hands, even in your hair. Then you could say reverently following St. Paul, " I live now, not I, but Christ lives in me." In short, he who has won the heart of man has won the whole man.
The ways by which we can unite ourselves to our neighbor are very numerous; but I will mention only a few of them. Since God wants us to love and cherish others, we must see our neighbor in him. This is the counsel of St. Paul who orders servants to serve God in their masters and their masters in God. We must practice this love of our neighbor and express it outwardly; and even if at first we seem to do so reluctantly, we must not give up on that account, for this feeling of aversion will, in the end, be conquered by the habit and good dispositions that result from repeated acts. We must bring this intention to our prayer and meditation, having begged God for his love, we must ask him also to grant us love of others, especially of those persons we have no inclination to love.
From St. Catherine of Siena- teachings in the Dialogue
There are only two reasons to abandon prayer. One is obedience, if a superior or director demands it. The other is to serve the needs of a neighbor.
A soul cannot grow in prayer or love if she refuses to help her neighbor in need, on the pretext that such help will interfere with her prayer or disturb her spiritual peace. A person who says such things is deluded and will not find God in prayer. On the other hand, the person who abandons
prayer because a neighbor has a need will find God in the loving service rendered to the neighbor.
The goal of prayer is to bring the soul to greater love of God and therefore to greater love of neighbor. The soul who reaches the stage of perfect love, and is united with God. leaves that bliss to serve her neighbor, because she loves her neighbor as God does.
Love for God is expressed through service to neighbor. God does not need our service, but His creatures do. God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, increase us in faith and truth and gentleness and grant us part and lot among his saints. Amen St. Polycarp (1st Century)
Compiled by Rosemary Darmstadt
National Pro Sanctity Secretary
Unstarred sections may be applicable *denotes sections that are somewhat applicable **denotes sections that are very applicable
**1108 - The Communion of the Holy Spirit. In every liturgical action the Holy Spirit is sent in order to bring us into communion with Christ and so form his Body. The Spirit, who is the Spirit of communion, abides indefectibly in the Church. Thus the church is the great sacrament of divine communion and gathers God's scattered children together. Communion with the Holy Trinity and fraternal communion are inseparably the fruit of the Spirit in the liturgy.
1118 - The sacraments make the Church since they manifest and communicate to men, above all in the Eucharist, the mystery of communion with the God who is love, one in three persons.
*1202 - Through the liturgy of a local church Christ is made manifest to the particular people and culture in which that church is rooted. The Church is catholic, capable of integrating into her unity, while purifying them, all the authentic riches of culture. (Compare Lumen Gentium 23 and Unitatis redintegratio)
1203 - Holy Mother Church holds all recognized rites (Latin, Byzantine, Alexandrian, Armenian, Syriac, Maronite, and Chaldean) of equal right and dignity, and that she wishes to preserve them in future and foster them in every way.
*1267 - Baptism makes us members of the Body of Christ: We are members of one another. Baptism incorporates us into the Church. From the baptismal fonts is born the one people of God of the New Covenant, which transcends all the natural or human limits of nations, cultures, races and sexes - "for by one spirit we were all baptized into one body."
1271 - Baptism constitutes the foundation of communion among all Christians including those who are not yet in full communion with the Church. They have a right to be called Christians and with good reason are accepted as brothers by the children of the Catholic Church. Baptism, therefore, constitutes the sacramental bond of unity existing among all who through it are reborn.
1325 - The Eucharist is the efficacious sign and sublime cause of that communion in the divine life and that unity of the people of God by which the Church is kept in being. It is the culmination both of God's action sanctifying the world in Christ and of the worship men offer to Christ and through him, to the Father and the. Holy Spirit.
1331 - The Sacrament of the Eucharist is called Holy Communion because by this sacrament we unite-ourselves to Christ who makes us sharers in his Body and Blood to form a single body.
1348 - All gather together: Christians come together in one place for the Eucharistic assembly.
1369 - [In the offering of the Eucharistic Sacrifice] the whole Church is united with the offering and intercession of Christ - the pope, bishop, priest, deacon, and the faithful.
*1370 - To the offering of Christ are united, not only the members still here on earth, but also those already in the glory of heaven. In communion with and commemorating the Blessed Virgin Mary and all the saints, the Church offers the Eucharistic sacrifice. In the Eucharist, the Church is, as it were, at the foot of the cross with Mary, united with the offering and intercession with Christ.
1396 - The Unity of the Mystical Body: The Eucharist makes the Church. Those who receive the Eucharist are united more closely to Christ. Through it, Christ unites them to all the faithful in one body - the Church. Communion renews, strengthens, and deepens this incorporation into the Church already achieved by Baptism.
1398 - Eucharist and the Unity of Christians. St. Augustine says: "0 Sacrament of Devotion, 0 Sign of Unity, 0 Bond of Charity." The more painful the experience of divisions of the church which break common participation in the Table of the Lord, the more urgent are our prayers to the Lord that the time of complete unity among all who believe in him may return.
**1416 — Since receiving [the Eucharist] strengthens the bonds of charity between the communicant and Christ, it also reinforces the unity of the Church as the mystical Body of Christ.
2204 - Family. Christian family can be called a 'domestic church' because it is a community of faith, hope and charity and constitutes a specific revelation and realization of ecclesial communion.
2205 - Family. Family is a communion of persons, a sign and image of the communion of the Father and Son in the Holy Spirit, m procreation and education of children it reflects the Father's work of creation. It is called to partake of the prayer and sacrifice of Christ. Daily prayer and the reading of the Word of God strengthen it in charity. The Christian family has an evangelizing and missionary task.
2206 - Family. Family is a privileged community called to achieve a sharing of thought and common deliberation by the spouses as well as their eager cooperation as parents in the child's upbringing.
*2331 - God inscribed in the humanity of man and woman the vocation, and thus the capacity and responsibility, of love and communion.
**360 - Unity of Mankind. Because of its common origin, the human race forms a unity for "from one ancestor, [God] made all nations to inhabit the whole earth."
"0 wondrous vision, which makes us contemplate the human race in the unity of its origin in God. .in the unity of its nature, composed equally in all men of a material body and a spiritual soul; in the unity of its immediate end and in mission in the world; in the unity of its dwelling, the earth, whose benefits all men, by right of nature, may use to sustain and develop life; in the unity of its supernatural end: God himself, to whom all ought to tend; in the unity of the means for attaining this end; ...in the unity of the redemption wrought by Christ for all." (Pius XII, encyclical, Summi Pontificatus 3)
*788 - By communicating his Spirit, Christ mystically constitutes as his Body those brothers of his who are called together from every nation. (Lumen Gentium 7).
**790 — Believers who respond to God's word and become members of Christ's Body become intimately united with him. "In that Body, the life of Christ is communicated to those who believe and who, through the sacraments are united in a hidden and real way to Christ in his passion and glorification." This is especially true of Baptism...and the Eucharist, by which "really sharing in the Body of the Lord...we are taken up into communion with him and with one another." (Lumen Gentium 7)
813 - Unity is the essence of the Church: There is one Father of the Universe, one Logos of the Universe, and one Holy Spirit, everywhere one and the same. There is only one Virgin become Mother and I should like to call her "Church."
**814 - Within the unity of the People of God, a multiplicity of peoples and cultures is gathered together. The great richness of such diversity is not opposed to the Church's unity.
**815 - What are [the Church's] bonds of unity? Charity that binds everything together in perfect harmony and profession of one faith received from the apostles, common celebration of divine worship, especially the sacraments, and apostolic succession through the Sacrament of Holy Orders, maintaining the fraternal concord of God's family.
**820 - Christ bestowed unity on his Church from the beginning. This unity, we believe subsists in the Catholic Church as something she can never lose and we hope it will continue until the end of time. Christ always gives his Church the gift of unity, but the Church must always pray and work to maintain, reinforce and perfect the unity that Christ wills for her.
**821 - To respond to the call of unity there must be: (a) a permanent renewal of the Church to be faithful to her vocation. This is the driving force toward the movement toward unity, (b) conversion of heart as the faithful try to live holier lives (c) prayer in common because change of heart and holiness of life along with public and private prayer for the unity of Christians is the soul of the ecumenical movement (d) fraternal knowledge of each other (e) ecumenical formation of the faithful and especially priests (f) dialogue among theologians and meetings among Christians of different churches and communities (g) collaboration among Christians in human service.
822 — Concern for achieving unity involves the whole Church, faithful and clergy alike, but we must realize that this holy objective - the reconciliation of all Christians in the unity of the one and only Church of Christ - transcends human powers and gifts.
**836 - "All men are called to this Catholic unity of the People of God...and to it, in different ways, belong or are ordered: the Catholic faithful, others who believe in Christ and finally all mankind, called by God's grace to salvation." (Lumen Gentium 13)
838 - With the Orthodox Churches, communion is so profound that it lacks little to attain the fullness that would permit a common celebration of the Lord's Eucharist.
855 - The Church's mission stimulates efforts towards Christian unity. Divisions prevent fullness of catholicity proper to her in those who are separated from full communion with her.
885 - The college of bishops, insofar as it is composed of many members, is the expression of the variety and universality of the People of God and of the unity of the flock of Christ, insofar as it is assembled under one head. (Lumen Gentium 22)
*946 - What is the Church if not the Communion of Saints? The Communion of Saints is the Church.
947 - Since all the faithful form one body, the good of each is communicated to the others. We must therefore believe that there exists a communion of goods in the Church. But the most important member is Christ, since he is the head.... Therefore, the riches of Christ are communicated to all the members through the sacraments.
**948 - Communion of Saints means: (a) communion in holy things - sancta - and (b) among holy persons - sancti. ''''Sancta sanctis — God's holy gifts for God's holy people is proclaimed by the celebrant in most Eastern Liturgies during the elevation of the gifts before communion. The faithful {sancti) are fed by Christ's Holy Body and Blood (sancta) to grow in the communion of the Holy Spirit (koinonid) and to communicate it to the world."
*953 - Communion in Charity. In solidarity with all men, living or dead, which is founded on the Communion of Saints, the least of our acts done in charity redounds to the profit of all. Every sin harms this communion.
**956 - Intercession of the Saints. Because more closely united to Christ, those who dwell in heaven fix the whole Church more finally in holiness. They do not cease to intercede with the Father for us... and by their fraternal concern greatly help our weakness. (Lumen Gentium 49)
**957 - Communion with the Saints. We seek by this devotion the union of the whole Church in the Spirit be strengthened. Communion with the Saints joins us to Christ from whom issues all grace and the life of the people of God itself. (Lumen Gentium 50)
958 - Communion with the Dead. Our prayer for the dead is capable, not only of helping them, but also of making their intercession for us effective.
959 - In one family of God. For if we continue to love one another and to join in praising the Most Holy Trinity - all of us who are sons of God and form one family in Christ - we will be faithful to the deepest vocation of the Church. (Lumen Gentium 51)